Mary L Gorden
Do you remember fifty years ago? Were you even alive fifty years ago?
I suspect that for most of you, dear readers, that the answer to both of those questions is NO.
But I remember early summer 1966 quite well. I had just started my first job as a computer programmer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). I was writing my second professional program and I was about to destroy my boss’s computer program. And because this was 1966, there was no electronic backup of his program code.
Horses are magnificent creatures and we are lucky that they share our world with us.
Horses came into my life late. I started riding on my 45th birthday and bought my first horse when I was 47. Chief was an Appaloosa gelding in his late teens. He was the perfect horse for a beginning rider. We had five wonderful weeks together before he died suddenly of complications from an intestinal stone. I was devastated. But I had been hooked on horses in those weeks and over the next few years horses were to take over my life.
I didn’t make as good of a choice on my next horse. Lucky was a ten year old chestnut Morgan mare. She was way too much horse for me. That’s a polite way of saying I wasn’t a good enough rider to make riding her safe for me. Horseback riding is a very dangerous sport. When many people think of horses they think of the “put one foot in front of the other” rent string horses at a dude ranch. Not all horses are like that. Some horses are firecrackers. Lucky was one of those. Even the calmest horse can spook and potentially drop its rider on the ground.
Last Tuesday the State of California held a primary election. I was a poll worker. I firmly believe that voting is more than a right, it is a responsibility. So anything I can do to support the voting process is, in my mind, a good thing to do.
Back when I started voting you had to go to a polling place unless there was something unusual going on in your life. In that case you could request an absentee ballot. So I tend to view this “vote by mail” approach that many people have chosen as not quite right. I like voting in my polling place. I know that for polling places to exist, there is a need for poll workers. And that is why I volunteered to get up at 4:30am on a Tuesday morning and go to work.